Instant messaging is a popular form of communication across the Internet. Instant messaging is primarily used to enable communications instantaneously and notoriously between two or more instant messaging users for whom presence may be monitored. To access an instant messaging service, a user connects to the Internet and authenticates themselves to the service with whom they've previously registered, typically by providing a user identity (e.g., a screen name) and a password to the instant messaging service. Once a user is logged in, the presence of that user (i.e., the availability of that user to receive instant messages) is made available by the instant messaging system to authorized partners (i.e., “buddies). The user may then engage in typed conversations with other instant messaging users connected to the system. As instant messaging and group chat conversations have migrated to mobile client devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) or mobile telephones, the efficient management of instant messaging and group chat conversations includes optimizing available screen space and/or user controls, such as scroll wheels or scroll bars on PDAs or mobile telephones.